PDF Culture and Education in the Development of Africa

CULTURE AND EDUCATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA By

ISAAC N MAZONDE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Today, Africa remains the world's poorest continent. There could be several reasons for this but one of the key ones is that education has not been relevant to the needs of the society. Substantial resources have been expended to boost education in Africa, even though such resources may not have been adequate. The basic problem is that educational structures were formulated by colonialists who had a cultural background different to that obtaining among Africans. Decades of self rule and independence have not succeeded in empowering Africans through enabling them determine their educational framework. In part, this difficulty is a result of the continued social and economic ties between African countries and their former colonising powers. Although Africa is politically independent, it remains technologically and economically dependent on countries that colonised it. Current educational structures are meant mainly to foster this bond, rather than reduce it. Reforms in African education were conceived and implemented within the framework of this relationship, hence they did not go far enough to develop and foster African culture . This paper is divided into sections. Each section discusses a specific aspect of education. The material is drawn from across Africa, and many countries are used as cases, thus giving the paper a comparative perspective. Section I is a historical presentation of the evolution of education across Africa. It highlights key areas of focus in traditional education before the advent of Europeans. At this point in time, education was structured by the people and it was relevant to the needs of the society that prevailed then. Such education was based on the values and traditional systems of societies. It was when Africa was colonised that modern or western education was introduced. It undermined the traditional value system and created social classes that did not exist before its advent. Western values replaced traditional ones and in the process traditional African education was relegated to the margins, being associated with rural people who lost their socio-economic power with the onset of western values. Post-colonial education has contiuned the links with the west. The post colonial educational system has operated to strengthen such links. Section II focuses on primary education. The section highlights the problem of growing numbers of primary school children across sub-saharan Africa, showing the rates of growth and reflecting on the costs of providing education for these children. The section explains some of the reasons why some African children will never receive formal schooling and then shoes costs associated with education at the primary school level. The section proposes some alternatives to formal schooling. Section III addresses higher education. This section brings into the discussion ideas of the World Bank, an organisation that funded higher education in a number of African countries. The Bank's arguments are tested for relevance to African situations and alternatives are suggested. Curriculum changes are suggested and the role of the government in the provision of higher education is evaluated. Section IV touches on curriculum. It argues that African countries have Africanised their education curricula quite slowly. Changes have occurred mainly in science subjects, such as mathematics. One might argue that such subjects have a small political economy dimension, hence the willingness of the west to make appropriate reforms in them. The section considers the role of informal education and that of vocational training, putting the informal sector in the perspective. Section V is on modeling African education for development. The section concentrates on the curricula for certain countries, essentially Zimbabwe, but also brings in experiences from Latin America.

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Section VI brings to the fore problems associated with using a second language as the main language for learning. Cases used include French and English as the medium of instruction for African students. The problems are discussed under three sub-headings: pedagogical, supply of teachers and administrative difficulties. The literature reveals the difficulties African pupils face in understanding the basic concepts when taught in a foreign language and also the shortage. Most importantly, the discussion shows how culture comes up strongly to present a barrier for African students when they are forced to learn in a foreign language which is based on values and metaphors different from theirs.

INTRODUCTION This paper sets out to discuss how culture has influenced education and also how education has influenced culture in Africa over time, from the pre-colonial through the colonial to the post-colonial period. Due to paucity of more current or up to-date literature, the post colonial period will be considered only up to the mid 1990s. It is recognised, however, that the current period is characterised by the use of hi-tech in education, tele-education through TV and through video-conferencing, and the eLearning initiative which is fast gaining a foothold in a number of African countries. Most of the discussion is on the colonial and the post colonial period. The discussion is in the form of analysing a very wide and comprehensive literature, even though one cannot claim that the literature is exhaustive. The space allocated for the paper is a serious limiting factor as there is a lot to be said about this subject, such that it is far from enough to make a balanced presentation in less than 50 pages. The paper is divided into sections, each addressing a specific aspect of a broad theme of culture and education. Cultural aspects of education do not stand out from the rest of the teaching or learning activities; there are often an integral part of it. Hence, the cultural dimensions of the discussion will be indirect most of the time.

SECTION I: OVERVIEW OF EDUCATION IN AFRICA 1.1 The Social Framework of Education in Africa This section sets out the social framework of education in Africa through outlining the relationship between African societies and their educational systems with reference to both the pre-colonial and the colonial period. Following Datta (1987) the subject matter of the section is analysed with reference to a number of concepts including 'industrial and pre-industrial societies', 'primary and secondary groups', 'subsistence and exchange economy', 'social stratification', 'division of labor', occupational, specialization', and 'formal and informal education. Africa in the pre-colonial period included a large number of autonomous societies. Some of these attained a high degree of political organization, for example, the kingdoms or Ashanti and Dahomey in West Africa, and the Zulu under Shaka in South Africa. Other societies Were acephalous, that is, without organized kings or chiefs, such as the Talletlsi, the lbo and the Yako of West Africa, the Nuer of southern Sudan, and the Tonga of southern Zambia. Despite such political differences, pre-colonial African societies were marked by certain distinctive traits so that it may be in order to treat them together in a study such as this. An individual in such a society was born, grew up, and spent most of his life in his village, which contained a small number of people. Much of his time was spent in the production of food. There was a simple division of labour based chiefly on' sex and age. Men lived in close relationship with nature (the land, vegetation, and animals) because of limited technological development. They were related to each other by extended ties of kinship which bound them to such unlineal kinship groups as the lineage and the clan. These ties supported a network of reciprocal ritual, social and economic obligations. In this framework marriage involved a contractual agreement between two groups of kindred. Political power was based on religion and partly emanated from the ritual relationship of the chief, or the king, to the land and to the

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ancestral spirits. Despite differences in status, emphasized by formal etiquette and ritual behaviour, there was a general uniformity in the standard of living. Although the society was stratified between the rich and the poor, the main aim of the former was to gain followers by giving poor people land, for which they themselves had no use, and surplus stocks of cattle and grain. 1.2 Education In Pre-colonial Africa How was education organised in societies of this nature? In the early phase of colonial administration some missionaries in Africa believed that they were bringing education to entirely uneducated peoples. This supposition would have been valid if educated were equated with literacy and formal schooling. In fact, detailed accounts of African peoples by anthropologists leave one in no doubt that African societies did possess a kind of customary education, a system which worked reasonably well, given limits imposed by the society within which it had to operate. In this section an attempt is made to highlight some of the more important aspects of traditional African education. It should be noted that although the past tense has been used, the system described persist even now, to a limited extent, in various areas. The main aims of African customary education may be identified as follows: 1. to preserve the cultural heritage of the extended family, the clan and the tribe 2. to adapt members of the new generation to their physical environment and teach

them how to control and use it; and to explain to them that their own future, and that of their community, depends on the understanding and perpetuation of the institutions, laws, language and values inherited from the past. Understandably in accordance with these objectives the content of African customary education education grew out of the physical and, what is more important for our present purpose, social situation. As to methods, both formal and informal processes were utilized for the transmission of knowledge, skills, ideas, attitudes and patterns of behaviour. Thus tribal legends and proverbs were told and retold by the evening fireside, and through them much of the cultural heritage of the tribe was kept alive and passed on to the children). There were riddles to test children's judgement, and myths to explain the origin of the tribe and the genesis of man. Such oral traditions, narrated with care and repetition, additionally constituted the African child's training in what was often a complicated linguistic system without a script. Names of trees, plants, animals and insects, as well as the dangers and uses of each were learnt as boys herded cattle or farmed land with their fathers, and girls helped their mothers in household work. Imitative play, too, formed an important part of informal education. Boys staged mock battles, and made model huts and cattle pens; girls made dolls, played at husband and wife and cooked imaginary meals. The importance of play in customary education in Africa has been underlined by many observers. A major part of the cultural heritage of an African people was transmitted to children and adolescents through these informal activities. Additionally many societies had organised instruction. Lucy Mair in An African People in the Twentieth Century describes how Ganda fathers would, through formal instruction, teach their children appropriate manners and the knowledge of genealogical positions of different clansmen. Kenyatta, in Facing Mount Kenya, analyses how, among the Kikuyu who are endowed with a pronounced age-set system, formal education was, in the past, imparted through succeeding stages of initiation, from status to status. The assumption of each status was accompanied by a sequence of rites which organised instruction of one sort or another. Initiation ceremonies and formal training for adulthood have also been reported from many other societies of the continent, especially from East, Central and

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Southern Africa. Among these may be mentioned the Sidamo (Ethiopia), the Nandi (Kenya), the Masai (Kenya and Tanzania) and the Pare and the Makonde (Tanzania). Indeed in many traditional societies of Africa, formal education most strongly manifested itself in the initiation ceremony. This ceremony marked the transition from adolescence to adulthood and often consisted of circumcision for boys and clitoridectomy for girls. The extent of formalism in the initiation and the post-initiation training can, with advantage be illustrated with reference to the Poro society in West Africa. This society functioned among the Kpelle, the Gbunde, the Loma and the related peoples of Sierra Leone and northern Liberia, extending as far as the border of Guinea. Among these peoples, a youth, after circumcision, was initiated into the Poro; his formal entry into the adult world could not take place before the completion of the Poro education. The length of a term in the Poro school was theoretically four years, but the time a youth had to spend in it varied. Joining the school was not obligatory. However, a boy who did not go through it had no social standing so that, traditionally, membership of the Poro society was practically universal. A coming-of-age ceremony thus sustained the individual at a critical stage in his life, the transitional period between late childhood and adulthood, through interaction with his peers. In many places different clans, villages and segments of a tribe participated together in the ceremony, thereby stressing the integration of the entire society. It was during the ceremony and the accompanying training that a major part of the tribal mythology, accumulated knowledge and skills, and appropriate attitudes were transferred to the young initiates. But to the extent that adults took part in the ceremony some of the these cultural components were reinforced for them too. To make the occasion memorable, sanctions of all kinds were brought to bear upon the neophytes, thereby asserting the authority of the society over the individual. The ceremony was attended by considerable pomp and spectacle which impressed upon the participants the significance of the occasion. Popular display was always contrasted with certain secret rites (a series of acts including gestures and verbal expression, their sequence established by tradition) that were confined to those who had themselves gone through similar experiences. In those societies where Islam gained a foothold, a formal system of instruction was provided through Koranic schools. Religious education, a basic requirement of Moslem societies, involved the learning of the Koran.. Thus, various African countries saw the establishment of Koranic schools to arrange for the teaching and learning of the Koran and the Arabic language. A Koranic school was usually set up in or near a mosque. The teacher sat in front of his pupils, controlled their activities and recited to them the verses from the holy book which were repeated by the pupils. Older pupils were taught to read and write the Arabic script. For most pupils formal education ended with the memorazation of a part of the Koran and the acquisition of the skill to read and write the Arabic script; but more able to and ambitious pupils could enter the next stage of schooling which involved the comprehension of the meaning of the Koranic verses learnt by rote, reading other writings such as Hadith (that is, the traditions of the Prophet), followed later by learning the rules of grammar. The programme of studies at this stage might also include other branches of knowledge, viz, theology, commentaries on the Koran, logic and jurisprudence. The student then chose an area of specialisation and joined one of the well-known universities, at Fez, Sankore, Timbuktu, Al-Azhar, or Mecca. It is clear that Islamic education in pre-colonial Africa was highly formalised, characterised as it was by learning occuring at a specific place and time, mediated by someone who was specialised as a teacher. In most societies the process of elementary education was brought to a close through a graduating ceremony when the successful pupil visited the houses o f his parents, teachers and relatives, recited a verse selected for

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him by the teacher and was given presents. The graduating student reciprocated by giving appropriate gifts to the teacher. Apart from formal training for all adolescents, there was, in most societies, formal education for a number of functional categories. Among these could be included herbalists, drummers, blacksmiths and priests. In most cases, training for such occupations was organised through a kind of apprenticeship system. In a limited number of societies which developed standing armies, formal training in warfare was imparted through an institutional arrangement of the state. The training of children took note of sex-difference very early. This was justified on the ground that boys and girls at a later age would be expected to perform different tasks, boys engaging mostly in farming, house-building, herding and hunting, and girls in cooking, keeping the home and child-rearing. Thus boys were ridiculed if they dabbled in something which was supposed to be the preserve of girls, but were encouraged when they tried to take part in operations considered appropriate for boys. The sex role of the girls was emphasized in like manner . The differentiation of sex roles was pointedly brought to the fore in mantoombwa, a popular game among Tonga children. In this make-believe game children built themselves play houses on the outskirts of the village. In the building process, boys did the work that was generally done by grown-up men in hut-building. They went to the bush and cut poles and constructed huts. The girls undertook women's work, involving cutting grass for thatching the huts and preparing food for the working men. When the hut was complete, the boys pretended to herd cattle or hunt small birds to be cooked by girls. Usually, in such plays, older boys and girls paired off as husband and wife, while the smaller ones took the role of their children. Children eagerly waited for the afternoon when their mothers would release them from helping in household chores and allow them to go to play mantoombwa. If one was a good girl that day her mother, would give her salt, meat or vegetables for mantoombwa. At, the end of play the girls would bring food to their mothers to taste. If it was well cooked, the mother would praise the girl and, if the girl was teased with 'Is this how you will cook for your husband!? Girls' education came to an end with puberty rites. These were organised when girls reached the age of fourteen or fifteen. A very important part of the puberty ceremony was the confinement of the girl into the house of some relative. The period of confinement varied between six weeks and two months in different par~ of Tongaland; during which girls attaining maturity were subjected to an intensive training given by senior women of the community. This part of girls' education was entirely controlled by women. The puberty ceremony had scope for physiological, social and moral education. The physiological education comprised the teaching of healthy sex habits and the knowledge of the procreation process. The social part of the training dealt with the rights and obligations of women in relation to the whole community, while moral training involved instructions in the art of self-discipline and control and trial of courage. Older women tried to reform the girls of the defects they had earlier observed in them. If a girl had been impolite, she was rebuked and even beaten. Elizabeth Colson tells us that the words used on such occasions were 'Now you are grown, we want you to stop using obscenity, and abusing people. From now on you must be reminded, further, that as married women they must work hard, keep their homes clean, their husbands well looked after and their fields in order.

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